The majority of inventory in retail stores is carried in a form of shelving construction utilizing gondolas or trays for the products. Such format has changed little over the years. A floor platform supports a vertical upright backing board which defines the gondola. The gondola includes vertical weight-supporting uprights having a plurality of vertical slots. The slots and uprights are adapted to support shelving and other elements in or on which merchandise is placed for display. While such gondolas are typically employed for the display of goods directly on the selling floor, similar structures are employed in freezer cases and the like for the display and storage of refrigerated goods.
Such gondolas are required to display and support an ever increasing number of products in a staggering assortment of packaging and in an ever decreasing amount of space. However, the current gondola shelving systems typically use space relatively inefficiently and are ill-equipped to handle a variety of products. The result is that there is typically not enough gondola space available to keep and display all the desired products neatly and efficiently.
Conventional gondola shelving generally consists of a horizontal shelf panel supported by outwardly-extending brackets connected to vertical supports. To reduce their weight and cost, such shelves are often constructed with a relatively thin upper panel, sometimes formed of sheet metal. Since such panels are usually not strong enough to support any significant amount of weight, or sometimes even their own weight, additional support must be provided for the panel.
In some shelving systems the additional support and stiffening of the panel is provided by two channel members connected to and extending underneath the panel between the outwardly-extending brackets. This method is somewhat effective. However, the channel members extend a significant distance below the bottom of the panel thereby increasing the thickness of the shelf and decreasing the useable space and efficiency of the gondola.
Support and stiffening of some shelving systems is, in some cases, also provided by downwardly-extending front and/or back shelf-lips, oriented perpendicular to the panel surface, i.e., normally vertically. Such lips can increase the rigidity of the shelf, however, they can interfere with the stocking and removal of items on a shelf immediately below and can therefore require additional spacing between adjacent shelves. This results in the decrease in useable space and efficiency discussed above.
Furthermore, conventional gondola shelves are not designed to be incorporated in shelving systems which are adaptable to products having varying sizes and shapes.
Therefore, what is desired is a shelving system which is of a light-weight and economical construction which is rigid and able to support a significant amount of weight and which has a low profile such that it can be incorporated in a gondola system adapted to efficiently display products of varying sizes and shapes.